Home Health ICD-9 Coding Guidance

Our friends at CMS have issued new diagnosis coding guidelines for home health. A link to the document can be found to your left under Essential Links.

Essentially, this is a 27 page document that includes numerous charts for assistance is choosing primary and secondary diagnoses. On first review, there appears to be nothing earth shattering about the guidelines but the charts and explanations might serve as ideal teaching tools.

As always, Haydel Consulting Services LLC is recommending advanced ICD-9 coding training for as many clinicians in your agency as you can afford. The CMS document, in and by itself, will not produce competence in ICD-9 coding. But, as a reference tool, it appears to be quite useful.

Questions and comments are always welcome by clicking on the Comments section below or emailing to Haydelconsulting@bellsouth.net.